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The Music in It

Saturday, August 16, 2014

Asleep or awake, I suspect that
most poets are dreamers, and our dreams are a rich source of inspiration and
creativity.

Much has been written about
dreams and their interpretation, and dreams have offered an infinite wellspring
of ideas for writers of every stripe throughout written history. This week,
let’s write a poem inspired by an
actual dream (happy dream, emphatic dream, nightmare, surreal dream, waking
dream, precognitive dream)—any dream that you’ve had.

Guidelines:

1. Dig deeply into your dream
recall (your ability to remember dreams) and write down as much of a particular
dream as you can remember (perhaps even a recurrent one).

5. Alternatively, recall times
when you’ve watched a beloved pet sleep, and imagine what that pet’s dreams
might have been. Write a poem about a pet’s dream.

Tips:

1. Focus on imagery and on
creating a sense of your dream’s mood. Mood and tone will be important in this
poem.

2. If the dream didn’t make sense
to you, don’t attempt to force it to make sense in your poem.

3. If the imagery of the dream
was surreal, then use surreal imagery in your poem.

4. You may want to write in the
past tense, but think about switching to the present tense to create a sense of immediacy, as if the dream is
happening now.

5. Be aware of “ing” endings and
overuse of prepositional phrases.

6. If you write about a recurrent
dream, be sure to include some elements of repetition, including anaphora (the
deliberate repetition of the first part of a sentence). Repetition can be used
for emphasis, as well as to create tension, and to enhance the sound quality in
a poem.

7. Let your poem use space on the
page in the same way that it uses space in your mind. If the dream components
are scattered, scatter their word counterparts across the page with interesting
line breaks, indents, and stanzaic arrangements.

The girl who killed herself, her dog, and son speaks to me. She tells me that this death is only sleep. I’m not sure what she means by this—what other death? I stand above her grave, not knowing if there even is a grave (a place to put her—perhaps just ash, the newspapers didn’t say); but, no, I see her face. Her lips move before the words: So much life, she says, is dead before the body follows. She looks at me through stippled eyes and, reaching up, she trims the moon with pinking shears. Light, unraveled, falls (a perfect circle) around the dog beside her—the dog’s spirit scratches its jaw. I don’t know how she came to be inside my dream or why she haunts me—I barely knew her. From my front porch, I see the house in which she lived—the storm door open. Snow that is ice, that is glass, covers the lawn; the lawn splinters and cracks.

I find the prompt, the tips, and the dream symbols website so helpful. There is so much spiritual wealth in our dreams, so to have a method to harvest it gives us poets so much potential material!

SO MUCH LIFE from your new book stunned me.

Here is a recurring dream of mine. I first started dreaming it when mother was still alive and I was building a career here in America. I reworked the poem using your tips and your coaching over the years:

MY NEWEST BOOK

Click on the cover image to order.

ABOUT NOT ASKING WHAT IF

"Kenny has written some of the most hauntingly beautiful spiritual haiku I’ve ever read—haiku that take us as close to divinity as human language can get. Her haiku are spare and commanding, rich in imagery, and layered with meaning." (Alex Pinto, Tiferet)

“Traditional haiku, environmental haiku, psychological haiku, spiritual haiku—Adele Kenny has done them all. Her haiku are spare and powerful, always nuanced with rich symbolism. Her images and juxtapositions make readers hold their breath in wonder.” (Malachy McCourt, Author of A Monk Swimming)

A LIGHTNESS, A THIRST, OR NOTHING AT ALL — BOOK TRAILER

WHAT MATTERS

ABOUT WHAT MATTERS

"In Adele Kenny's finely wrought meditations on grief and loss, she never forgets that she's a maker of poems. What Matters straddles two of the exigencies of the human condition: diminishment and endurance. It abounds with poems that skillfully earn their sentiments." (Stephen Dunn, Pulitzer Prize in Poetry)

"These are poems that come to (poetic) grips with the issues of grief, fear, and death ... focused in a new and strong way." (Gerald Stern, National Book Award in Poetry)

BLOG AUTHOR PROFILE

I’m the author of 24 books (poetry & nonfiction) with poems published in journals worldwide, as well as in books and anthologies from Crown, Tuttle, Shambhala, and McGraw-Hill.
I’ve worked as a guest poet for numerous agencies, have twice been a featured reader in the Dodge Poetry Festival, and my awards include two poetry fellowships from the NJ State Arts Council, the 2012 International Book Award for Poetry, and the Distinguished Alumni Award (Kean University). My book, A LIGHTNESS, A THIRST, OR NOTHING AT ALL, is a 2016 Paterson Prize finalist. In March of 2012, I was appointed Poet Laureate of Fanwood, NJ by the Borough Mayor and Council.
A former professor of creative writing in the College of New Rochelle’s Graduate School, I’m founding director of the Carriage House Poetry Series and poetry editor for Tiferet Journal. I give readings and conduct both agency-sponsored and private poetry workshops.

MY WEBSITE

REALLY FUNNY (Bulldog Reading Dylan Thomas)

HOW TO READ POETRY – Funny!

ATTENTION HAIKU POETS

If your area of interest is haiku and its related forms, click the image above for a list of journals (published in various countries) that might interest you.

ON THE TIP OF YOUR TONGUE

Ever find yourself in the middle of a poem and unable to find that one perfect word? Here's the link for a site that provides synonyms, antonyms, related words, similar sounding words, and much more. Easy to use!